Time management is becoming a skill that is as applicable to your e-mail habits as it is to your calendar. As more and more of us communicate via e-mail, your inbox can fill up very quickly!
Last Cyber Monday I shared some ways to manage your e-mail traffic and keep it from becoming overwhelming. Wendy Battles of Healthy Endeavors wrote a comment that included a great idea — using e-mail rules to help manage your e-mail traffic.
After receiving Wendy’s comments, I asked my VA to experiment with this idea, and she loved it! She said that she’s now got things set up so that some sets of e-mails are immediately forwarded to me, while others are sorted into different categories.
More on Managing E-Mail
I also came across a helpful article by Marty Marsh on Solo E.com titled “Managing E-mail the Easy Way.” Where my VA set up her e-mail folders by subject, he suggests setting them up with time frames in mind. So you might have a folder for things due today, due tomorrow, review later, etc. A combination of these two methods might work well.
Another very useful suggestion that he makes is having a separate e-mail account for your personal e-mails. This is an important boundary to maintain, especially if you’re working at home. The distractions offered by personal e-mails can pull you off task frequently. And remember, every time you are pulled off task, it also takes time to refocus.
Have you used rules to manage your incoming e-mail? In just the little bit of exploring that we did, we found rules to be a very helpful tool – and one that most e-mail programs include. Thanks for the tip, Wendy — you’ve definitely changed the way we work with e-mail here at The Time Finder!
Have you tried using e-mail message rules? Has it worked well for you? I’d love to hear!
And here’s more help for you…
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! For more Time Finding resources, you are invited to sign up and download The New Finding Time Boundary Template. It’s FREE, and when you sign up you will also receive (if you don’t already) my FREE, weekly Finding Time Tips and my FREE, monthly Award-Winning Finding Time E-zine!
Let’s explore time together …
Hi Paula,
I forwarded one of your articles to someone else. The one on finding time to stay healthy is great, and applicable to what I do. I would like to link to it when I get my website done.
Even though I have not yet read much of your writing I find myself remembering you when I am making healthy choices about time. 😉
Consider writing an article about the following (it is my issue but also shared by many others!): When I get a a break from rigorous time management for business, in the time I do not HAVE to do anything, I find that I have competing needs. I feel a NEED to be free of even having to manage time and look at the clock as I’ve been doing that all day. So the boundaries about getting to bed may be compromised by just Being, or doing something pleasurable. I can answer my own question intellectually, but when that time comes and going to bed is the best idea I am just as likely to end up in the bathtub.
If you feel like writing about the perception of having competing needs I’m sure a lot of folks will benefit!
Teresa Dietze
Thank you for the kind words and the very interesting question! I decided to write a post following up on the issue that you raise.
To your time success!
Paula
PS Teresa – the link to your site is not working in your comment. If you e-mail me the complete link, I will fix that!
Thank you Paula! Here is the correct link.
Excellent – thanks, Teresa! Your site is fascinating! (http://positiveenergytools.com/) I’m so glad you’re up and running with it!
Paula